Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of the adherence to animal welfare requirements of abattoirs in receipt of funding from the Smaller Abattoir Fund.

Applications to the Smaller Abattoir Fund (SAF) closed on 30 September. All abattoirs eligible under the SAF are registered and approved by the Food Standards Agency, who are also consulted during the assessment of applications. The Food Standards Agency monitor and enforce animal welfare regulations in all approved slaughterhouses.